Celtic boss Martin O’Neill has confirmed that he’d like to sign up Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, though he believes Arsenal might also be in the race for the free agent.
Celtic recently emerged as a contender in the race to sign free agent former Arsenal player Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, who has been training back with the Gunners in recent months as he looks to prepare himself for his next club.
Celtic boss Martin O’Neill spoke to the media this week about the prospect of signing the player, admitting Oxlade-Chamberlain is someone he likes.
“I do, I genuinely do,” O’Neill said. “He has trained at Arsenal for some time since his time in Turkey, [I] spoke to him. I’m sure he’ll have lots of options, maybe closer to London as well too, but he was very affable.
“He will have other options. He is training at Arsenal and Arsenal have had a few injuries so they might even take him on.”
Whether or not Arsenal are genuinely considering offering Oxlade-Chamberlain a contract remains to be seen, but O’Neill was clear that he’d ideally like to sign the player for Celtic.
“I would be very interested in doing it,” O’Neill insisted. “He was telling me he has been training with Arsenal for quite some considerable time. So in terms of fitness, it’s not match fitness, but we’ll see. He’s got loads of options.
“I think he was very excited about what we were saying. [But] if it doesn’t materialise, it doesn’t materialise.”
With Mikel Merino suffering an injury, the Gunners were on the lookout for a midfielder at the end of the January transfer window.
Mikel Arteta was asked on Monday whether Oxlade-Chamberlain could fill that role in the squad, and the Arsenal boss responded: “We explore every option.”
But Arsenal’s primary goal of having Oxlade-Chamberlain in training has been to help the player get fit, to take his help mentoring their u21s, and then for him to find a new club. A playing contract still seems improbable.